The Incident (1967)

A couple of thugs are looking for trouble in late night New York when they hop on a subway train with more than a dozen other passengers, one of whom is a bum sleeping it off. They start by messing around with the bum but turn their attentions on the other riders, terrorizing each in turn. It's a nasty little movie that took me forever to finish because of how distasteful it all was. Not only were the hoodlums behaving hideously, but the "keep your head down" mentality of the riders was just as repugnant. As long as they weren't the ones in the spotlight, most didn't want to help or engage.

The one scene that I thought actually worked was when it was the black man's turn to be put on the spot. He'd actually decided, despite his wife's objections, to remain on the train past their stop because he wanted "to see this," thinking that he would be protected because he considered himself on the side of the ruffians -- having no love for whites, he conveyed with a smile that anything they wanted to do to the other passengers was just fine by him: "you want to knock heads together, go ahead!" But his enjoyment turned to fear and anger as he realized he was just another target for them. It reminded me so strongly of those who think they're on Team Trump... sure, it might be fun watching the left freaking out. You might be eager to see aliens ejected because "they shouldn't have been here in the first place." But Trumpers aren't special and will also eventually also be hurt in ways that are both tragic and predictable. Just because they aren't first in line for trauma doesn't mean it isn't coming for them -- there's no "team" when it comes to bulles: there are only potential victims.

C-